Push-button system.



W. BAXTER Jn. PUSH BUTTON SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 19, 1908.

1,072,g74, Patented Sept. 2, 1913.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH cm, WASHINGTON, D, c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM BAXTER, JR., OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

PUSH-BUTTON SYSTEM.

Application filed November 19, 1908.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WVILLIAM BAXTER, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Push-Button Systems, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to systems of motor control, more particularly such as are used for electric elevator apparatus, and comprises certain improvements and modifications of the invention set forth in my copending application, Serial No. 272,654, filed August 4:, 1905.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide improved means for reducing to a minimum the sparking at the switches of electric elevators.

A further object is to provide improved means for slowing down the motor.

A still further object is to provide improved means for stopping the motor gradually.

For the attainment of these ends and the accomplishment of other new and useful ob jects, the invention consists in the features of novelty in the construction, combination and arrangement of the several parts hereinafter more fully and completely described, and claimed in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 represents a diagrammatical arrangement of the invention applied to a single, push-button controlled electric elevator system; Fig. 2 is a detail of one of the floor controlling relays and non-arcing contacts; and Fig. 3 is a detail view of one of the floor switch levers with a relay mounted thereon.

The elevator car is connected to the hoisting mechanism in any well known manner, the hoisting mechanism being driven by an electric motor A, having a shunt field B. The starting resistance R is controlled by means of the relay G, and in such a way that the operation of relay H or H to close the main circuit through the motor will cause it to start and gradually run up to full speed.

By closing one of the hall push-buttons 1, 2, 3, 4 or one of the corresponding car buttons 1, 2, 3, i, a circuit will be closed from mains P, N, through one of the floor controlling relays K to the corresponding floor controlling lever F, through the lever Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 2, 1913.

Serial No. 463,404.

relay J, thence through one of the relays which close the reversing switches in either one direction or the other to send the car up or down, as is desired.

The floor controlling levers F are operated by means of the engagement of a suitable pin 5 on the nut 6 with the bifurcated. eX- tremities 110 of levers F. The said nut 6 is moved up or down on the rod 7 which is held against vertical movement but geared to the motor or other moving part to rotate at a speed proportional to the speed of the car. Each lever F is pivoted on a pin 19 and has a relay J secured to it, which controls the operation of a lever 8 pivoted at 9, said lever 8 being in electrical connection with the lever F. WVhen the relay J is not energized the spring 10 holds the lever 8 from making electrical connection with conductor 11. The lever F also has segments 13 and 14 insulated from each other and from the lever arm 12 by means of the insulating material 15. The contact pieces 12, 13, 14; are adapted to make contact with the arc-shaped segments 16, 17, 18, respectively, as the lever F is rotated about the pin 19. The upper and lower station limit segments are single, while the intermediate segments are double, as clearly shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing. These contact segments 16, 17, 18 may be adjustable to. check and to stop the car where desired, and stops at and b may be provided to limit the throw of the levers F.

Referring to the reversing switch mechanism, the piece 27 is made up of the core 20 of the up relay H and the core 21 of the down relay H insulated from each other by the insulation block 22. A lateral proj ection 26 on the piece 27 engages the springs 23, 24: secured to a fixed base 25, which springs 23, 2e tend to hold the part 27 in a central position whether the relays H or H are energized or not.

The starting resistance B may be cut out by means of a relay G with a core 50 pref erably provided with a well known type of air plunger which prevents a rapid jerky operation of the core and the appended rheostat arm. This core 50 has a projecting pin 58 which engages in the opening 57 of the lever 54 pivoted at 55; the lever 54L making contact with the buttons 56 of the starting resistance R as the core 50 moves up or down.

An arrangement of contacts for the magnets K is shown in detail in Fig. 2, in which the contacts 58, 59 and 60, 61 are so spaced that 62, 63 do not leave one set 59, 61 of contacts before they touch the set 58, 60, thus avoiding the breaking of circuits as the relay K operates the core 57 The operation of the system will be understood from the following description: Assuming that the car is at the lowest landing, the nut 6 will be in the lowest position as shown by the drawing in Fig. 1. If it is desired to call the car to the top landin the push-button 4 at that floor is operated. A circuit will then be established from the main P through the wire 65, door contacts 64, wire 66, safety push-button 67, car buttons 68, wire 69, contact plates 70, 71, 72, 73, and their lower fixed contacts, wire 74, hall push-buttons 4, wires 75, solenoid 79, wire 80, floor lever 81, relay solenoid 82, wire 83, contact 13, contact strip 37, wires 84 and connected contact strips, .up-magnet H, wire 85, relay 1', wire 86, relay G, wire.

87, contact 88, wires 89, 90, magnet L, wire 91 to main N. The magnets 79, 82, H, I, G and L will then be energized. The core 57, wit. its circuit-closer 73, will. then be drawn up to form a retaining circuit for the magnet 7 9 through the contacts 58, 60 between the conductor 69 which is common to the hall and ear push-buttons, and the conductor '75 which is individual to the relay 79 and the top push-buttons. Circuit to the contacts 70,

.71, 72 is also broken, so that interference from any hall or car butt-on is prevented until after the car is stopped and the hall door opened to open the top switch 64. The magnet 82 draws the lever 8 into contact with the conductor 11, but this operation has no eifect until the car approaches the top landing. The up magnet H draws its core to the left to operate the up reversing switch. The magnet I when energized draws its contact plate 92 to connect contacts 93, 94, closing a circuit between magnet G and wire 90. The contact 88 is secured to the lever 54, but insulated from it, and rotates with it about the pivot point 55, so that there can be no circuit such as previously indicated from main to main when one of the push-buttons is operated unless the lever 54 and contact 88 are in the starting position as shown in Fig. 1, when all the starting resistance will be in the motor armature circuit. As soon, iowever, as the relay I is energized the contact bar 92 closes the control circuit through contacts 93, 94 and further useful objects are accomplished by the control circuit, as subsequently set forth.

WVhen the relay G is energized, the core 50, with lever 54, is drawn up against the action of the air plunger device 51, 52, or any well known equivalent device, and the extremity of the lever 54 makes contact with the button contacts 56 of the motor resistance R which is in series with the armature.

The relay L controls the operation of the brake magnet O, the contact maker 95 being of the non-sparking type previously described. When the relay L draws up the contact bar 95 to make connection between the contact points 96, 97, a circuit is formed from main P through lever 30, wires 100,

101, relay 104, wire 102, contacts 97, 96, contact bar 95, wires 103, 105, lever 31, to N, thereby effecting the operation of the brake magnet C to release the brake.

lVhen the up magnet H operates to move its core 20 to the left, the levers 30,31 are moved about their pivots 32, 33 to make contact with the terminals 39, 45. This movement causes the pins 48 and 49 to carry the arms 34 and 36 of the V-shaped levers into engagement with the stationary contacts 38 and 46. A motor circuit is thereby closed through the armature of the motor A, which may be traced as follows: from the main P, to contact 39, through lever 30 and arm 34 to contact 38, wire 106 to motor A, wire 107, lever 54, resistance R, wire 108 to contact 46, thence through arm 36 and lever 31 to contact 45 and main N. As soon as the le vers 30, 31 make contact with the mains P, N, the field winding 13 of the motor receives current through a circuit which may be traced from lever 30, through wire 100, field winding B, wires 109, 105 to lever 31. And since the relay L has operated to lift its contact bar 95, the brake magnet C, being in parallel with the field B through wire 103,

contacts 96, 97, contact bar 95, wires 102, 101, operates to release the brake. After the motor circuit is closed the starting resistance R is gradually all cut out by lever 54 as previously described.

As'the carmoves upward, the nut 6 is also moved upward and the pin 5 thereon successively engages the bifurcated extremities of the floor levers F and rotates them about their pivot pins 19. When the uppermost lever F is rotated, the contact piece 14 is moved into engagement with the segment 18 and establishes a circuit through the magnet H in parallel with the circuit through the magnet H. This circuit may be traced as follows: from the wire 83 (Fig. 3) which connects the relay J to the segment 13, to the lever 8 operated by the relay J, conductor 11 connected with contact 14, and thence through segment 18, wire 111, relay H and wire 112 to wire 85. When these two magnets 11 and H are in parallel, the pull of one is neutralized by the pull of the other and the action of the springs 23, 24 is to bring the bar 27 back to the neutral posit-ion with the levers 30, 31 on contacts: 42, 44, the arms 34, 36 of the V- shaped levers remaining in contact with the terminals 38, 46, respectively. This operation of the reversing switch cuts off the supply of current to the motor from the mains P and N, and establishes a local electro-dynamic braking circuit which may be traced from the motor A through wire 106,

terminal 38, switch arm 3 1, lever 30, con

tact 12, wire 114-, resistance R, wire 113, contact 4 1, lever 31, switch arm 36, contact 416, wire 108, contact 56, lever 5 1, and wire 107, back to motor A. As the uppermost lever F is further rotated, the connections )etween the contact pieces 13, 14 and the segments 17, 18 are broken, and hence the controlling circuits are opened, thus releasing contact bars 73, 92, 95 of relays K79, I and L and also allowing the lever 54 attached to core 50 of relay G to fall back into its starting position. The release of the bar 95 of magnet L deenergizes the brake magnet and permits the brake to operate.

It is evident that the segments 16, 17, 18 can be so adjusted as to cause the motion of the car to be arrested and finally stopped at the place desired. Vhen the control circuit is broken the floor controlling relay K7 9 is placed in a local short circuit which may be traced from K7 9, through wire 80, arm 81 of lever F, contact plate 12, control segment 16, wire 115, wire 75, back to relay K7 9. Brake magnet C is placed in a local circuit with resistance r, by the release of the contact plate 95 of relay L, the circuit being from G through wire 118, resistance 7, wire 116, contacts 98, 99, contact plate 95, wire 117, wire 102, back to C. When the car reaches the desired floor and the door is opened, the door contact opens the control circuit to make it impossible to operate the car from any other point until the said door contact is closed. It is also evident from the preceding description that when one floor controlling relay K is operated to draw up the contact plate, all the other fioor controlling relays are open-circuited and it is impossible to operate the car by operating either hall push-buttons or car push-buttons until the car has first reached its destination. When the car has reached its destination, all the magnets are deenergized as in the first or normal position so that if the door contacts 64 are all closed the car may be called to any other desired floor by pressing the corresponding hall or car push-button.

lVithout limiting myself to the details of construction or arrangement of parts disclosed, what I claim and desire to have protected by Letters Patent 01' the United b'tates is 1. The combination with an electric motor, of reversing switches, operating magnets therefor, and means for effecting the energization of first one and then both of said magnets together.

2. The combination with an electric motor, of electro-magnetic reversing switches controlling the supply of current to the motor, and automatic means for establishing a controlling circuit first through the magnet winding of one of said magnets, and then through the other magnet winding in parallel therewith.

3. The combination with a motor, of relays for controlling the supply of current thereto, reversing switches, operating magnets therefor, and automatic mechanism for closing first a circuit to one of said magnets and then to both magnets in parallel.

4. The combination of a motor, relays controlling the supply of current thereto, reversing switches, operating magnets operating said switches, electro-responsive means for closing a circuit to one of the magnet windings, and means to then close a parallel circuit to the other winding.

5. The combination of an electric motor, starting resistance therefor, an accelerating electromagnet, a device operated by said electromagnet for cutting the starting resistance out of the motor circuit, a switch in circuit with the said electromagnet and operated by said device to closed and open position, respectively, when the starting resistance is in and out of circuit, a relay magnet in circuit with the accelerating magnet, and a switch operated by the relay magnet and controlling a' shunt circuit around the first named switch.

6. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of relays for controlling the supply of current to the motor, floor controlling relays, floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controlling magnets operating said switches, and means associated with the floor levers for closing parallel circuits to the controlling magnet windings.

7. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of relays for controlling the supply of current to the motor, floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controlling magnets therefor, means for operating the floor controlling levers from some moving part of the apparatus, and means associated with said levers for automatically closing circuits in parallel to the controlling magnet windings.

8. The combination with a motor, of controlling relays for the motor, reversing switches, controlling magnets for said switches, and means for closing a circuit first through one of said magnet windings and then in parallel through both magnet windings, said magnets being arranged for opposing the pull of one magnet to that of the other while the said parallel circuits are closed.

9. The combination with a motor, of controlling relays for the motor, reversing switches, controlling magnets for said switches, stop motion mechanism, means associated therewith for closing parallel circuits to the magnet windings, said magnets being arranged to opposethe pull of one magnet to the pull of the other, and means to return the switches to the central position.

10. In a controlling ap iaratus for elevators, the combination with a motor, floor cont-rolling levers, reversing switches, controlling magnet-s therefor, and means associated with said levers for closing circuits in parallel to the magnet windings, said magnets being arranged for opposing the pull of one-magnet to that of the other.

11. In a controllingapparatus tor elevators, the combination with a motor, floor controlling levers, stop-motion mechanism for engaging said levers, reversing switches, controlling magnets therefor, an electrores aonsive device mounted noon each of said levers, and means associated with said electro-responsive device for closing parallel circuits to the controlling magnet windings.

12. In controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with an electric motor, of floor controlling levers, means for automatically operating said levers, elect-ro-magnets carried by the levers, and a motor controlling circuit associated wi h and controlled by said electro-magnets and levers.

13. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, floor controlling levers operated from some moving part of the apparatus, reversing switches, reversing switch magnets, insulated contact pieces on said levers, and stationary contact strips to contact with the said lever contacts to place the switch magnet windings in parallel.

14E. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, floor controlling levers operated from some moving part of the apparatus, reversing switches and controlling magnets, and means for placing the switch magnet windings in parallel to open the reversing switches.

7 15. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, fioor controlling levers, means for engagement of the levers operated from some moving part of the apparatus, reversing switches, controlling magnets therefor, fioor controlling relays, means for placing the switch magnet wine tings in parallel to open the reversing switches, and means for short-circuiting the floor controlling relays after said operation of the reve'sing switches.

16. The combination with a motor, of electro-magnetic reversing switches therefor, means to energize first one and then both reversing switch magnets, automatic stop-motion mechanism, starting resistance for the motor, means to prevent closing of the reversing switches unless th starting resistance is all in the motor circuit, and

means independent of the electro-magnets of the reversing switches for returning the latter to open position while said electromagnets are energized.

17. In controlling mechanism, the combination with an electric motor, of controlling relays therefor, reversing switches, switch contacts for a local motor circuit, controlling magnets for said switches, mechanical spring devices, and means for combining the actions of said spring devices and controlling magnets to move the switches to close a local motor circuit through the said switch contacts.

18. In controlling mechanism, the combination with an electric motor and circuit connections, of switches, magnet windings, magnet cores therefor secured together and insulated from each other, means for operatively connecting said switches to the mac net cores, and means for placing the switci magnet windings in parallel to return said magnet cores to open position.

19. In controlling mechanism, the combi nation with an electric motor and connections, of switches, magnet cores secured together, magnet windings for said cores, means operatively connecting said switches to the magnet cores, means for closing a cir' cuit to one of the magnet windings, means for subsequently closing a parallel circuit to the other magnet winding, and means act mg in conjunction with the two last named means to control the supply of current to the motor.

20. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of re lays theretor, push-button switches, reversing switches, controlling magnets therefor, and means for automatically placing the switch magnet windings in parallel after the operation of a push-button switch.

21. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of an elevator car, station push-button switches, reversing switches, controlling magnets for the reversing switches, means for automatically placing the switch magnet windings in parallel when the car is in predetermined positions, and means for stopping the motor when said parallel circuits are closed.

22. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of a plurality of sets of push-button switches, reversing switches, controlling magnets for the reversing switches, means for automatically placing the reversing switch magnet windings in parallel when the elevator car is in predetermined positions, and thereby stopping the car at a position corresponding to the push-button operated.

23. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of a series of hall push-button switches, a series of corresponding elevator car switches, reversing switches, controlling magnets for the reversing switches, and means for placing the switch magnet windings in parallel after operation of either a hall or car switch.

24. In controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of reversing switches therefor, controlling magnets for said switches, means for effecting the operation of said magnets alone and in parallel to control said motor, and floor controlling relays comprising means for preventing the operation of more than one of said relays at a time and for effecting the energization of the said controlling magnets in proper succession.

25. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of floor controlling relays, floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controlling magnets for said reversing switches, an electroresponsive device in circuit with the magnet winding of the reversing switch and mounted upon said floor controlling lever, means associated with said electro-responsive de vice and the floor controlling lever for closing a circuit to a single reversing switch magnet winding or for closing a parallel circuit to the said winding.

26. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of hall push-button switches, corresponding car switches, floor controlling relays, floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controlling magnets therefor, motor starting resistance, an electro-magnetic brake, electroresponsive means for controlling the said brake, electro-responsive means for preventing the starting of the motor unless all motor starting resistance is in the motor circuit, and means for operating one of the magnets to cause the reversing switches to complete the circuits required to start the motor.

27. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of hall push-button switches, corresponding car switches, floor controlling relays, floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controling magnets therefor, an electro-magnetic brake, electro-responsive means in circuit with the magnet winding for controlling said brake, electro-responsive means associated with said controlling levers for placing the reversing switch magnet windings in parallel when the motor is in operation, and means for causing the motor to stop when said parallel circuits are closed.

28. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of noor controlling relays, floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controlling mag nets therefor, an electro-magnetic brake, electro-responsive means in circuit with the magnet winding for controlling the said brake, means for placing the reversing switch magnet windings in parallel, a local circuit for the motor, means for closing the local circuit to the motor after the parallel circuits to the magnet windings have been closed.

29. In a controlling apparatus for elevators, the combination with a motor, of floor controlling levers, reversing switches, controlling magnets for the reversing switches, mechanical spring devices, an electro-magnetic brake, a local circuit for the motor, means for placing the reversing switch magnet windings in parallel, said magnets being arranged to have the pull of one magnet directed against the pull of the other, said mechanical springs co-acting with the magnets to close the local circuit to the motor, and means for applying the electro-magnetic brake to stop the motor.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM BAXTER, JR.

Witnesses:

W. H. BRADY, JAMES G. BETHELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

